South Africa used to produce some very high-end military gear, like the Rooivalk attack helicopter and the MGL-40 grenade launcher. It’s been a while since something new turned up in the country and now it has. A South African company called the Paramount Group has unveiled the Mwari, a locally-made precision strike aircraft.
Named for the Shona creator deity (though we’re not sure why — it seems like a fairly nice god, as gods go), the two-seater attack aircraft is designed to fill multiple military roles. It’s reportedly the first aircraft of its type to be produced in SA since the 1980s. It’s undoubtedly the first new local military aircraft to turn up since the Rooivalk.
Will you Mwari me?
Paramount’s aircraft was unveiled and the first batch of nine have already been sold. Two different air forces are set to take delivery of the Mwari, but the company hasn’t said which countries are involved.
Being a military aircraft, available information about its capabilities is limited. It’s got a range of 930km and a top speed of 435km/h. It uses an Interchangeable Mission Systems Bay to quickly switch roles and it operates at a height of up to 31,000 feet. It’s also capable of remaining airborne for up to 6.5 hours.
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Mwari is designed for “peacekeeping, surveillance, policing, border/coastal patrol and anti-smuggling tasks; patrol and counter-insurgency operations; disaster relief and emergency supply to remote areas; and intelligence gathering.”
But they’re not cheap. Each aircraft costs about R176 million a pop. They’re fairly economical in operation though. It costs about R26,500 an hour to keep a Mwari in the air. By comparison, it costs between R350,000 (the A-10 Warthog) and R700,000 (the F-15E Strike Eagle) an hour to operate most American fighter jets.
Source: Bloomberg
